With that, Lena was dragging me down the hallway and into a bathroom decorated with fish and other sea creatures from Finding Nemo. Any awkwardness I felt about showering with Lena in a strange home faded quickly as Lena yanked my tunic over my head and tossed it into the plastic garbage can next to the toilet. I turned on the water, then helped Lena peel off her shirt. I ran my fingers gently over the skin at the edge of her bandages. “Are you sure . . . ?”

“You’ll need to be gentle.” She tugged the bandages loose. The bullet holes underneath were dark and scabbed: one on her stomach, the other on the inner curve of her left breast. Two other bullets had struck her left shoulder. Tiny lines bulged around the edges of the wounds, like the roots of a plant. “Not too gentle, mind you.”

I unbuckled her jeans and slid them over her hips, kissing my way down her body and carefully detouring around her injuries.

Her hands tightened around the back of my head. She groaned, then pulled me up and kissed me hard, her tongue seeking mine, our hips pressing together.

“I’ve missed you,” she whispered when we broke away.

“I missed you, too.”

She flashed a mischievous grin. “I can see that.”

I stepped into the shower. “Give me a few minutes to wash up, and I’ll show you just how much I missed you.”

I woke up early the next morning. Between changing time zones and spending two days in a coma, my schedule was utterly wrecked. I tiptoed past the lumpy sleeping bags in the living room where my brother was snoring away next to Lex and Angie. Talulah was on the couch.

Lena had explained that this was the home of Jason’s ex-husband, a revelation that made me realize how much I didn’t know about my former boss, while simultaneously adding an additional layer of awkwardness to the whole shower sex thing.

Once people began materializing in his library, Jason had gotten on the phone to search for a safer location. When he learned Rich was on a business trip for the week, Jason had loaded everyone up and taken a road trip downstate. I wasn’t clear about whether he’d asked permission, first.

I entered the kitchen to find Smudge and another fire-spider playing in a large frying pan in the middle of the kitchen. Jeneta was watching over them. She’d lined the pan with a layer of cooking oil and popcorn kernels.

“Popcorn for breakfast?” I asked.

Jeneta jumped, then beamed up at me in a rare, unguarded show of emotion. “Nkiruka’s been teaching Smudge how to pop corn. He didn’t like the oil at first, but as soon as he ate his first piece, he was hooked.”